Chapter Text
"I can live neither with you, nor without you."
Sometimes time passes fast, sometimes time passes slow. An hour could feel like an eternity, a month could feel like a couple of days. It was just last month that students were scrambling to find different schools to attend once they graduate, the following month did they graduate and then spend a certain amount of time relaxing alone or with their friends before attending their newest institute to learn. Everyone reacts differently towards their new school and classmates, some positive whereas a few were negative. And some, they just had no reaction at all, simply accepting their fate without expressing how they felt about it.
A few adjust faster than others, while others could take up to a month to adjust. If the environment was very different from what a student was used to, it may take longer than most. During that process would they feel different types of emotions while feeling peer pressure to do their best. She wonders how God felt the moment he manifested in infinite darkness if he didn't have his infinite wisdom and willpower right then and there. Would he cry? Would he try to look for others like him, throw a tantrum and perhaps accept his fate? No one knows, that's the beauty of it, unpredictability.
White hair flew in the wind, blue eyes with a grey undertone focused on whatever was in front of her, uniform freshly ironed, shoes new and polished. Around her shoulder was a black back pack that had a simple chain attached to it, to add to its flair and keychains on the zipper that bounced as she walked : a white rabbit, a kitsune mask and a bolt of black lightning.
A classroom was filled with conversations, conversations that ranged from innocent to scary ones about what the future has in mind for each individual inside of the room. Entering the class, eyes widened and conversations hushed as a girl without a word took a seat in an empty seat and rested her hands on the desk. The girl closed her eyes, enjoying the music blasted into her ears from her bluetooth earphones.
Her phone was inside the pocket of her blazer, one of the safest places she could place it in. It was deep enough to hide it when she rested it sideways, enough space for her to also still stick her hand inside and easily detect the slightest movements. Another security feature on her blazer was that it could be buttoned.
"Is that."
"Yeah, guess the rumours are true."
"Constantly absent, yet always at the top of the class for midterms and final exams?"
"Constantly absent? That's an understatement, she never came to school besides orientation and days where we have tests."
"She looks so scary..."
Briefly turning her head, the conversations momentarily froze before it switched back to all the subjects they were previously talking about, sometimes would the class turn their heads and stare at her in caution while she scrolled through her phone-waiting for the teacher to arrive.
When Mr.Nakamoto did arrive at his usual class in the morning, he stopped in place when multiple of his students glanced and locked eyes at him before side-eyeing towards Shirayuri who busied herself with her stationary. Paying them no mind, he started his normal greetings as usual, throwing in a few jokes to certain individuals that made the class laugh in understanding.
"I believe the last day of school should be memorable," he began the interesting part of his speech, clasping his hands together while his eyes trailed to every student inside of his class. "That's why I believe we should have a little party at school grounds."
Glances were exchanged between friends, excited on what's to come at the surprise event.
"I'm guessing that all of you want to become heroes?"
The class erupted into cheers at the teacher's question, almost everyone showcasing their quirks in excitement while others showcased their abilities without an expression or opening their mouth. There were many quirks that were different from each other : a telekinetic quirk, fire manipulation, electro manifestation, a crystallisation quirk, bubbles and many more that made some clash terribly with each other.
Shirayuri's face showed that she was uncomfortable, pretending to rest her head on her hands when it was actually to cover her ears. They rang. They created a symphony of chaos inside of her brain. Their sounds were awful, the smell mixing with each other for no apparent reason. It was like being stuck inside of the perfume section inside of a mall, surrounded by staff asking if you want a whiff but had already sprayed it on you.
Looking at Shirayuri, Mr. Nakamoto noticed how she didn't showcase her quirk at all unlike the rest of her classmates that did. As he opened his mouth-ready to ask her why she wasn't showcasing her quirk, he slowly closed it once more. He remembered now. When he first saw her files, it was inked down to the paper that she was quirkless. No special ability to call her own.
Shaking his head, he continued to allow his students to chatter with each other. Ah, youth. Filled with energy and the will to succeed. This was the generation that would one day lead the country and then have kids of their own, to love and watch grow. Smiling, he hoped that he would be healthy and alive until then. The amount of gossip he could inform their future children would be hilarious.
When class was dismissed, Shirayuri got up and took her belongings with her. The others left their belongings in the class to prepared for the party outside. Glancing at Shirayuri, a girl opened her mouth.
"You're not going to be joining us for the party Shirayuri? Why not join us? Cmon, leave your bag in the class."
Another girl nodded, using her quirk, the group of girls watched as they saw the party that was waiting for guests to arrive. Gasping in awe, Shirayuri merely nodded her head and continued walking.
Yurina Sakamoto - quirk : Sweet Rainbow
Her quirk allows her to create rainbows anywhere, the sky included by using a mixture of fruits, sugar and honey. Though, she can only use the specific colours of the rainbow.
Kazane Suzuki - quirk : Three-Eyed Ave
Kazane's quirk allows her to possess any bird, when possessing that bird, she can hear and observe the environment around the bird, human conversation included. Additionally, she can control the bird to attack others. For now, she has a limit of one bird. As long as the bird is still alive, she can possess it from a great distance. Because of her quirk, Kazane was believed to have the highest potential in their class to become a famous hero.
Hitomi Hamada - quirk : Projector
Allows her to project information and descriptions made by others from her mind, she has a time limit of ten seconds before she suffers from the drawbacks of her quirk. Though, this time limit doesn't affect her if she flashes the projected item for a couple of seconds under ten and then wait another second before projecting it again.
Together, these three were popular in their class. Yurina for her confectionary and performances, Kazane with her powerful quirk useful when becoming a hero and Hitomi who sometimes help the class when the teacher briefly left the class during tests. Shirayuri blinked at them, face not showing any reaction to the stunts pulled by Yurina's quirk.
"I'm not really interested in eating the food and drinks provided, what's more is that I have training to attend." Shirayuri stated, turning her body around and continuing to walk, more interested in leaving the school grounds.
Yurina's shoulders dropped but she allowed the girl to disappear. Shame, she was finally hopping that this was the day that the white-haired teen would try and taste her rainbows once they start raining from the sky, everyone usually loves that when the rainbow eventually breaks apart. Ever since she saw a look of disgust on the teen's face when she first showcased her quirk, it made it one of her missions during school for the girl to enjoy it. But of course, she almost never did attend school for reasons unknown to the class and even some of the teachers.Kazane placed an arm around her friend for comfort as they watched Shirayuri leave the school alone.
"I don't think this will be the last time we will be hearing and seeing Shirayuri, don't fret Yuri." Hitomi smiled, smiling as she looked down at their classmate. To her surprise, Shirayuri was almost at the gate of the school despite talking to them a few minutes prior.
Her friends nodded, feeling less disappointed than they were just a few moments ago. Together, they walked back towards the class. Mr.Nakamoto watched the three girls re-enter the room without Shirayuri. He still hadn't leave the room, opting to take a trip down memory lane once the last student had left the class. In his hand, he held a few works that were submitted through servants working for the white-haired teen's family.
Straightforward, sometimes short sentences and absent of emotions. Her work truly resonated with the girl. So full of mystery that made anyone curious and try to chase after her, only to stop and rethink their actions when they meet her eyes. How does the eyes of a child look as if they had been through the abyss and back? Perhaps a change in emotion could be seen when the rest of her face also shifts? How would anyone know, Her micro expressions could be considered as myths. Micro expressions were facial expressions that occur and could only be seen in a fraction of a second. This to the teacher was the true emotion anyone felt when given news/information about something.
Leaving the area, Shirayuri made a turn and headed towards an alleyway filled with shade. With no fear in her heart, she enjoyed the silence and occasional random sound made by either stray animals or random humans lurking about. When her nose picked up another scent, did she chose to briefly turn her head before continuing on walking. Turning to a corner, she could feel the change in environment. As if someone was now right behind her.
"Hey young lady, are you lost?"
"..."
"Feeling a bit scared, don't worry, I may be no hero but I am able to protect a damsel."
Shirayuri stopped walking, the gruff voice from earlier alongside his disgusting scent finally reaching her sinuses. Wrinkling her nose, one of the things she disliked since learning about the quirk phenomenon. Sometimes, the quirk affects the quality of the human. Closing her eyes, after a brief moment of silence and a hand placed on her shoulder did her eyes snap open and her leg did a flip. Barely missing the head of the man as it slammed and cracked the wall right beside them. The man grimaced as the two locked-eyes in slow-motion. She growled at him for a moment, telling him to back off. Once that was done, Shirayuri immediately placed her leg back down and began running away from the alley.
Seeing an open manhole a few feet away from her, she immediately jumped inside and traversed through the sewers, doing her best to avoid the man that was chasing after her.
She didn't stop running for a good amount of time, reaching a much broader area of the sewers under the city. Her eyes widened, realising the change in quality of the sewers. The walls looked ancient, with different markings and holes that ranged from scratches, collisions, burns and etc. When she approached them, did she feel a shiver run down her spine. Touching it, she hummed in understanding.
So, this was where they used to train too.
Shirayuri bowed, to show respect to seemingly nothing. After that, did she kneel down and began to pray. Silence enveloped the area, besides the occasional sound of dripping water and distant sounds of moving water. Once she was done, she sat down her bag in a dry area, the white-haired teenager did some stretching while observing more of the area around her.
Her phone opened, three consecutive messages were sent at the same time.
March, XX, 20XX
New Message from Uncle Tsukiyama 🍴 (3)
Weather/Temperature 10°C
24th Ward, Tokyo, Japan
Ghoul Grades
SSS
SS
S+
S
A
B
C
Measured through their kagune, speed, strength, IQ, influence, activeness and hostility, a ghoul's rank may increase if they surpass the grade they were first thought to be placed in. This could happen anytime, when the ghoul in question was in a fight against investigators or was linked to a chain of crimes.
Being a C-class ghoul would be near to impossible, they never had a chance of survival at all if they were in the outside world, even if protected by upper class ghouls. In the past, they mostly attack unarmed humans, never brave enough to fight investigators. B-rank ghouls are small threats, they would already have mastered their kagune to be in this rank. A-grade ghouls would usually have a second tail or tentacle depending on their Rc type and are considered a threat at this stage. Despite the condescending words that surround these ranks, they were still 4-7 times stronger than a human.
Confronting an S-graded ghoul is when the difficulty reaches a whole new level. Especially if they were S+ and SS. Multiple special graded ghouls were needed to handle them, even then victory wasn't guaranteed as it could end terribly badly for both sides. One losing a highly talented ghoul whereas the other side lost multiple trained special investigators that had been learning and have been on-duty for a long period of time. Until know, it's unknown how much power imbalance there is among the S grade and above it.
But the highest class, SSS class, now, that criteria itself is unknown. Because there was only one known ghoul that was placed in the criteria, and that was the One-Eyed Owl. They were great in size and almost impossible to defeat. In one night was it able to slaughter an entire army of investigators while laughing, only when the sun rose did it disappear back in the shadows to celebrate its victory and rest its body. It was certain that there were other SSS ghouls in the past, but, their ideologies didn't align with the One-Eyed Owl's leaving them to choose living life as a hermit.
Extremely powerful ghouls, terrifying as they are tragic. Their characters written by fate to be a tragedy since the moment they were born. As if they were trying to embody the devil within them. the same Devil that shook the Earth during the first generation of quirk-users, crawling out to fetch all of his demons before returning them back to Hell in just one night. In One night where he was summoned did tsunamis struck many coastal areas, buildings shook and crumble, volcanoes blushing, roaring as they spewed out lava.
He made the lives of humans easier, by ridding the race that had long been their predator. In the following generations were the race of ghouls now considered extinct; the evidence of their existence now residing in museums. Quinques once used to slice and slaughter them, now collecting dust under artificial light. White coats hung and pinned in the closets of now deceased investigators or up for display. Perhaps you can even find some for sale online at either ridiculously high prices or prices so low the material being stated made out of leather was too good to be true.
There was a famous woman, a woman with the ability to remain immortal up until her wish has been granted. Many wonder what her wish was, countless individuals from different nations presenting her with gifts from their nations to help the old woman move on and free the soul from her body that was now too old to have any other uses other than slow speaking, blinking, consuming, drinking, rid itself of waste and sleeping.
"When I was young, there were ghouls," she would start her story, those infamous words that were replayed countless times by humans. To some, it sends shivers of either fear, excitement or interest. There was a faint smile on the old lady's face, as if she was staring at the great blue sky on a beautiful summer day. Or perhaps she was walking under the sakura blossoms in spring, accompanied by her friends or a significant other that completed her. "Some so powerful that they can shift and could compare to great heroes with quirks allowing them to shift into great titans."
"Some say they crawled back into the depths of the Earth, leaving no proof of their existence...some others say they were folk tales to begin with."
"To me, they're simply waiting for humans to get their shit together." She chuckled, observing the shocked reactions of many when she cussed. Ah, that never grows old. For others to assume that she was just a weak old woman whose great fire was reduced to mere embers.
"I would like to witness that one day, where they return from the shadows and rejoin society..."
"His excellency, the One-Eyed King would have loved that."
No one knew who was the One-Eyed King, the old woman refused to open her mouth about who he was. All they knew was that he was the one powerful enough to lead and control an entire race known for their cruel and cannibalistic ways. Some would shiver, wondering if he himself was the cause of the great earthquake decades prior, or perhaps, if he was the Devil himself.
At some point in the future, will there be a day humanity receives a reminder, a reminder that they weren't always at the top of the food chain. They weren't at the bottom, but the imbalance could be compared to that of a great Grand Canyon.
Shirayuri laid in bed, a blanket covering her until it reached her nose. She watched the video again, sometimes having a shiver go through her body whenever they reach the part of the King. It was also the most replayed part of the video, comments underneath the video arguing if the king's existence was true or merely a myth that an old lady believed because of her old age and withering mind.
The old lady was someone Shirayuri had a decent amount of respect for, even if both of them have never met.
There were a couple of artworks that would attempt to depict what he looked like. The first one was a skeleton sitting on a throne, a crown around its head and wore clothes of medieval times. The second was a demon-like art with a red background, the thing had one eye in the centre of its head like a cyclops. There were more but, they all were too similar to each other. The point was, all of them looked monstrous and demon-like.
It was a shame.
No one attempted to depict him as having human-like features.
Suddenly feeling awake, she turned on the lights of her room and went towards her desk. Sitting down, she grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper. Straightening the paper, making sure it was landscape, Shirayuri began sketching what she thinks the one-eyed king would look like.
Because the title was king, she would make her sketch more male-like.
He would look human, a blank expression on his face.
The king unlike what most would draw or believe, would actually have two eyes. The only difference is their colour : one eye would be a normal colour while the other iris would be red and glowing. She paused, deciding to draw a mask on his face that covered his normal eye.
Time passed by, when she yawned, it was finally time for her to stop drawing. Blowing away some eraser residue, Shirayuri lifted up her art and began inspecting it.
"Strange," she smiled, bringing it closer towards the light. "He kind of looks like me before I added the mask."
From behind his mask feared by all, Ken Kaneki sat on his red leather chair in his office; doing his daily paperwork. His kakugan briefly appearing from time to time whenever something irks him in the reports. Surrounding him were countless books, organised to perfection by his secretary. He wore a classic black suit with formal black shoes and a black tie to go with the outfit. Like his eyes, he looked sharp and refined. A perfect example of what a man who has hit shit together should look like ideally.
Miwa gulped, observing him from the corner of her eye as she re-signed the same paperwork again. Her eyes widened, whispering a curse as she turned her pen upside down to erase the ink marks with friction. (Thank you to whoever invented erasable pens)
Unlike her boss/king, she was at least an A-rated ghoul in terms of a criteria that was once used by the Commission of Counter Ghoul better known as CCG. Strapped to her belt was a katana, the same sword used by Kaneki if he was not in the mood to utilise his kagunes. With his experience, he could easily slice through two of their kind in merely a few seconds. Oh to have that amount of training...
That would take her almost a decade with the rate she's improving.
His powerful powerful kagunes enhanced by his dragon organs, connected to his kakuhos. She could practically imagine him taking down an army with no problem, the highest ranked investigators having nothing on him-
"Miwa, you're drooling." Kaneki stated, no smile appearing on his face. His eyes were blank of any emotion
Miwa yelped, standing up straight and bowing in apology, hissing a bit when her head slammed onto the mahogany desk. Kaneki looked up from his papers, expecting something from the fresh-out-of-high-school student. Embarrassed, Miwa cleared her throat and apologised to her boss.
"Ah! I'm s-sorry Mr. Kaneki! I d-didn't mean to interrupt you at all!" Miwa stuttered out, her embarrassment growing as her cheeks turned red. She groaned and slumped down on her chair, great, could she be more of a useless embarrassment?
Kaneki stood up, chair scraping loudly against the floor. This caused the young adult to jump from her seat over the screeching noise hurting her sensitive ears. She stood frozen in place, holding in a breath as he walked over towards her as if she had dropped such shocking news to him. She looked down, refusing to meet his gaze, Kaneki clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
"Look at me, Miwa." he purred, holding her chin with two fingers and forcing her to slowly look up.
She met his gaze.
His right eye was a beautiful storm grey, whereas his left eye was occupied by his kakugan. If she paid closer attention, she could see the truth of the world the more she pays attention to his kakugan.
He was a king.
She was his slave.
"Miwa...could you please give me the reports?" Kaneki shot his secretary a concerned look, it hadn't even been five minutes yet she was entering a dreamlike state once more. The man was confused when a familiar scent permeated into the air that came from his secretary. He's familiar with it, usually found in the brothels he visited when searching for a target and dealing with them when located.
"O-oh right of course sir!" Miwa stuttered, collecting all the papers and practically hopping her way towards him. Her electric blue ukaku wings manifesting and fluttering behind her excitedly. Fuck, she really shouldn't have stayed up during the night to re-read her favourite fanfics.
Miwa's face reddened, watching how the man observed her kagune. As she handed them, her hands intertwined as he paid no attention to her face. Unlike the queen, she had no ability to infuse her attacks with electricity. Perhaps that would be for the best, she wouldn't want to accidentally loose control.
When she heard his hum of approval, she quickly bowed and turned back to return to her place in his office. Further away from his scent and body. Even when she returned back to her post, his scent lingered. Closing her eyes, she hoped it stuck to her body and clothes. Oh how she can brag to her friends after this once work was finished.
"Sir?"
"Hmm?"
"I heard that it was now possible to travel closer to humans without the need for the Haraguchi bloodline?" Kaneki looked up, nodding at his secretary.
"Times are changing, it has been since my family and I took charge of this civilisation." He stated, flipping through some papers as he took another one. Miwa nodded, opening her mouth to sing praise towards the leader of many. Even years after he became king, did he remain humble and never forgot about his family and friends that had stood by him since the moment he became one of them. His rise, was the start of a new era. A greater era that would be completely different from the era of blood. "Soon the world would experience a great change Miwa, something humans would deny accepting but in the end, they will have to accept."
Miwa's eyes perked up, briefly standing on the tips of her toes, creasing her shoes too in the process.
"I can't wait for everything to come down to fruition sir, I've been training long and hard to make sure I don't fall back and burden you!" she chirped, practically moving up and down in her place. She was sometimes similar to a child in an adult's body, adorable but sometimes annoying.
"Be patient Miwa, do that for me?"
She would die for this man, Kaneki sighed again, he should really stop testing out Hide's advice if this was constantly going to happen during working hours. Standing up, he needed a distraction and a break. And he knew the exact solution.
"Call my wife please, tell her I need her in my office and you can leave us alone."
Seeing the distraught look on her face, he almost smiled and broke his harmless facade as the young adult did as she was told. Touka shook her head when she met the eyes of the young girl, straddling Kaneki as she complained of his actions and words. In return, Kaneki kissed her fingers.
"You're the only one for me, so perfect," he kissed her bangs, her forehead and trailed his lips down from her face to her neck. "So perfect for me, my wife, the mother to my children."
Miwa groaned, ghouls have enhanced hearing if anyone had forgotten!
When they were returning home, Touka with a sad expression looked up. Noticing this, Kaneki wrapped an arm around her shoulder for comfort. Touka sighed and rubbed herself against him a bit for more comfort.
"Touka, it was for the better. We should have done what was done almost a decade prior. But, still, our work here isn't done."
"When the work is done, can I finally see my daughter again? I don't have to rely on pictures, holograms, holidays and videos just to see her grow up." Touka asked, Kaneki nodded. He understood very well what his mate was telling him. He wished that he could've brought her home, he truly wished he could. But he would tear the world apart and crumble everyone he could care less about if he were to see a white sheet covering a body at an altar, waiting to be burnt.
Everything would be in vain.
Eyes followed their movement, Kaneki's kakugan activated. He took a deep breath, it seemed that they had company, eager to stay for quite a while for a meaningful conversation with him. Without much to say, Touka understood as she had sensed the arrival of others too.
"Be a dear for me my love, I'm worried that Arata and Ichika are ganging up on Kishou now that he's all alone." Touka nodded, briefly kissing his lips before walking inside of the house. As she was about to close the door, she smiled once more at her husband.
Kaneki turned his back, raising his hand, he cracked his fingers. One flinched, remembering the infamous action of the king before every fight he enters and wins without causing much destruction to the surrounding area, most of the time.
"Now then, gentleman, are we going to stay here all day, or are we going to fight?"
Multiple masked men charged at him at the same time, with his experience in martial arts did Kaneki easily dodge their attacks. Toying with them for a bit, he released his kagunes and pierced them all in their abdomens. When blood spewed out of their mouths did he slammed their bodies against each other hardly to the point all of them could hear their bones crack from force of impact.
Dropping them onto the ground, Kaneki placed his foot on one of their throats and applied light pressure to it. Blood spurted from the new open wound of the ghoul under him, his face frowned. Blood had seeped into his white socks. white socks.
"I'll leave you all here as evidence for your friends, now, do me a favour and don't be so loud." He warned, giving them no second glance as he took off his shoes outside and entered the house, locking the door behind him. God, wearing wet socks were uncomfortable.